


Secrets

by water_bby



Category: The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia (Song)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Future Fic, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-22
Updated: 2013-12-22
Packaged: 2018-01-05 13:44:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,267
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1094571
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/water_bby/pseuds/water_bby
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Did she lose her brother in the war?"<br/>"Oh, no, sir. He's been gone near twenty years now. They hanged him for murder."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Secrets

**Author's Note:**

  * For [daylightfalls](https://archiveofourown.org/users/daylightfalls/gifts).



There are no secrets better kept than the secrets that everybody guesses.  
George Bernard Shaw, "Mrs. Warren's Profession," act III

Joe watched the countryside as the train slowed into the station. What were those yellow flowers? His grandfather had asked him to arrange moving their goods through this remote section of Georgia, and Joe had finally gotten an appointment. At least there would be a car to get him from the station to his meeting. And that was the problem, he thought. He didn't know exactly where it would be or even with whom. And after three years fighting in Europe, he knew that his chance of making it out of here alive if something went wrong was very, very small. His grandfather had sent along someone to watch his back, but they were going to be in someone else's space among someone else's unknown number of people. As the brakes squealed to silence, Joe stood from his seat and headed for the door, the bodyguard following immediately behind him.

The car turned out to be a pre-war station wagon with a garrulous driver who was happy to tell Joe that he would be meeting with a Miss Sissy out at the old family place. "She's got a house in town, now," the driver said, nodding towards a group of houses to the right, "but she don't neglect the old place neither, even if it is a bit rundown."

"Has her family been in the area a while?" Joe asked, hoping to learn more about his potential business associate.

"Oh, yes, sir. Her grandaddy built the old place, and her daddy and her brother and her were all born there. There's three generations buried out back, now that she's the only one left."

"Did she lose her brother in the war?" It was a reasonable assumption.

"Oh, no, sir. He's been gone near twenty years now. They hanged him for murder, though you can still get a good argument going at Webb's about whether he killed his wife."

"They hanged him for killing his wife? Rather than the chair?" His grandfather's people should have been able to uncover an execution even if it was two decades ago.

"No, sir. Didn't ever go to prison."

Joe waited a moment for the driver to continue and then finally prompted, "Could you tell me the whole story?"

The driver grinned widely, as if he'd just been waiting for the request. And maybe he had. Maybe this Miss Sissy wanted this story told.

"Well, now. Miss Sissy's brother had been married about six months at the time, and he had to make a business trip to Candletop, just checking on things, and he came back 'bout two weeks later on the bus, 'cause the car needed some work and there weren't no one here who could work on it. And he stopped at Webb's--it's the same Webb's, by the way, they never stopped serving. Anyway, he stopped at Webb's for a drink with a friend name of Andy. Andy was the kind of man that thinks it's a good idea to tell a man with a bad temper that he's done slept with the man's wife. And..."

"Wait. This Andy was sleeping with the brother's wife?"

"That's what they say, that he said he was. Course, they also say she'd been stepping out with Seth Amos, which Seth never talks about, though he's always careful 'round Miss Sissy, so maybe it's true. Anyway, there's this big argument at Webb's and both men leave, and 'bout two hours later the cops find Andy shot dead in his house, and everybody knows 'bout the fight, 'cause everybody drank at Webb's back then, and the judge just said 'Hang 'im' and that was that."

Now the judge had been mentioned in the information his grandfather's people had gathered. He'd been rather infamous, but Joe had assumed "hanging judge" was not literal. The judge had been found dead of his own hand just after the stock market crash in 1929.

"So they just rounded the man up and hanged him?"

"Well, sir. He was found at the house with a gun in hand."

"And what about his wife?"

"Nobody knows. She's not been seen since. Most folks think she took off after the hanging, 'cause she was scared of Miss Sissy, but some folks say she was gone 'fore then."

"What do you think?"

"None of my business, sir, but I'd be scared of Miss Sissy, too, if I was that woman." The driver turned sharply onto a dirt road and pulled to a stop before a small house. "Here we are. Miss Sissy said I'm to wait and take you back to the station."

"Thank you." Joe allowed himself to relax slightly. The apparently very formidible Miss Sissy assumed that he'd make it out of here alive. Joe was barely half-way to the porch when the door opened. The woman was maybe ten or fifteen years older than he was, with a slightly pinched look. But she was stylishly dressed, even if the house itself was a bit shabby.

"Joe, I assume," she said as he approached. "You can call me Sissy, everyone does. No last names, no identifying information. If I don't know it, I can't tell it." She thrust her hand out for him to shake, which he did.

"Sissy doesn't seem elegant enough for a lady like yourself," he drawled.

"Don't flirt with me, young man," she replied, but her lips twitched. "My brother was three years old when I was born and was terribly excited about having a sister, but the closest he could come to saying 'sister' was 'sissy.' It stuck." She led him into the house, nodding at the chairs around a small table already bearing food and a coffee set. "Now, you have a business proposition, I believe. Let me hear it."

Two hours later, Joe and his bodyguard were on their way back to the station, the agreement to let his grandfather's people come through Miss Sissy's territory obtained. As the car pulled away, he saw her standing by one of the stones in the small family cemetery. He wasn't sure whether he was more afraid of her or sorry for her. Clearly, she was still deeply grieving her brother's death, but he rather thought the judge's death the following year hadn't been a suicide.

"She's something else, isn't she?" he said to the driver.

"Oh, yes, sir, she is that. Everybody says they knew that she'd inherit everything, 'cause it was clear she was just better at it. But her daddy wanted the name to carry on, so he arranged for her brother to get married to that woman. He died just a month after that, her daddy did. Funny thing...all the brother got was gun."

"A gun? That's all?" Joe asked, mostly to keep the man talking.

"Just the one. It's what he used to killed his friend, Andy, they say. Though I hear that some folks are surprised he was actually able to do it."

"You did say he had a temper."

"Well, yes, sir, but he wasn't much of a hunter, and I hear tell that Miss Sissy was always the better shot."

Joe let the conversation lapse as they finished the trip back to the station. As the car came to a stop, he finally asked, "So do you think Andy was killed by Miss Sissy's brother?"

The driver grinned at him. "Miss Sissy always says her brother didn't do it. Have a good trip back to Atlanta, sir."


End file.
